I realize that everybody’s life comes to a full cycle between birth and
death. Life is a dynamic process consisting of multiple activities, physical,
mental and spiritual. The spirit of life, which for our understanding at this
stage may be defined as the Soul (Atma), is said to be the root cause of human
birth. This soul force in each living being brings along with it impressions of
past lives. When this soul force creates a living entity like a human being, it
becomes a ‘Jiva’. This jiva or human being is endowed with certain
mental and physical instruments in the form of mental and physical ‘indriyas’
in order to carry-on its worldly activities (both physical and mental) in accordance
with his desires, either created in this life or brought forward from the past
lives. Using the various faculties of mind and body, he calculates and strives
to achieve his desired objects. While doing so, at times, he succeeds and at time
he fails to achieve. When he achieves, whatever he desires, he feels happy and
when he fails to achieve his objectives, he feels unhappy. His life goes through
a series of achievements and non-achievements till his death. Besides the inherent
capabilities of the mind and the body, it is the circumstance in which he tries
to achieve his goals which contributes immensely in bringing success or failure.
Human beings do try to use the circumstantial advantages to their benefit and
control the un-favourable circumstances to the extent it is possible for them
to do so. However, no person, the mightiest and the lowliest alike, has ever been
able to control the circumstances to the fullest extent in accordance with his
desires. History indicates that some mighty rulers had miserable death.

The
greatest limitation of the living beings is that they cannot control their circumstances
beyond a certain point. When circumstances become favourable, sometimes, one achieves
more than what he anticipates and when circumstances become unfavourable, he achieves
less than his expectations. A saint or a wise man accepts such limitations, and
therefore, lives happily, whereas others who fail to accept such a reality, suffer
agony. Take for example a child who has genetic disorders as a result of which
his physical organs are defective or his mental faculties are limited. In such
a situation, who is to be blamed, if we try to blame someone else, including the
parents, nature or God for this miserable state of things? Again for example,
when many people perish due to landslide in a hill, then who is to be blamed?
Can one get a solution by blaming the hills or the forces of nature? Even if one
makes such factors responsible for his misery, does it bring a solution to his
satisfaction? Blame the deities one worships or the non-manifested sovereign energy
force called God? Many people do so but I do not know if this brings about a solution
to their problems.

The Hindu
vedic seers have explained such happenings through the theory of Karma. The theory
of Karma, elucidated exhaustively in the Gita Mahapurana, simply states that “as
you sow, so you reap”. This reaping of the seed of Karma can be of this
life or the earlier lives. According to the Karma Theory, visible reactions are
not always commensurate with visible actions. The blue-print of the invisible
action-reaction syndrome is carried forward by the human beings (Jivas) from their
past lives. This seems to be a good spiritual solution, but, except for the highly
evolved souls, an ordinary man is not capable of mentally accepting such a concept
in its totality and holding on to a stoic attitude to life. In such an eventually
who is to be blamed? Some human beings have a tendency to blame others, which
includes other human beings, society, circumstances and even God for all their
miseries simply because they cannot accept the realities of life. They forget
that God or nature has created human beings of widely different varieties and
has given a right to each one to complete his lifecycle as ordained by destiny.
Some of them often hold-on to their so-called moral standards and blame others
for not coming up to their level. This is another type of self-created problem
by the so-called good people. “If I am so good, they say, “Why should
I suffer?” or that “Why should the bad people enjoy life?”

Therefore,
it would be wise to avoid such an attitude of blaming others as no human being
is even near perfection (spiritually speaking) on this earth. One needs to learn
to accept certain realities, how-so-ever painful and make the best use of whatever
is good and favourable to achieve reasonable standards of happiness and success
in his life cycle.

You may have given many different gifts to your
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Topic of Discussion feature is
intended to initiate useful discussions on topics related to Shirdi Sai Philosophy
and His teachings, Guru Tradition, Teachings of the Sadguru, the nature and
functions of the Perfect Masters, true devotion, qualification of a disciple,
etc.

TOPIC OF DISCUSSION: PAIN
AND PLEASURE ARE LIKE TWINS, ALWAYS ENTWINED

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